Co-Founder

Megan Hereford is a wine and cider enthusiast, cork dork, and sometimes cellar rat. After receiving a B.S. in Biology and a M.S. in Food Microbiology from Virginia Tech she realized she probably should have decided to become a winemaker, but instead, she pursued a career in the biotech industry before hearing the siren call of the wine world. Since 2010 she has sold all the things that wine- and cidermakers use to craft fine wine and cider and has become a complete nerd about fermentation, clean wines, and wine closures.

Her chosen career path means that Megan has had a chance to taste wine and cider from all over the United States and she loves to see how the industry has grown outside of the west coast. A lover of clean, bright, and lively fermented beverages, she holds a WSET level 3 certification and is a Certified Cider Professional. She is a writer for The Wine Guild of Charlottesville as well as an occasional wine and cider judge.

In 2021 she was lured into the world of starting her own farm winery with longtime friend, travel and drinking buddy Jocelyn. Sometimes helping in the cellar and always having input on the styles of wines and ciders means she can live out all her winemaking fantasies while still steering the sales and marketing side of the business.

Co-founder

Jocelyn Kuzelka is a winemaker, cidermaker, and technical consultant. Since 2003, Jocelyn has followed her love of fermentation and enology all around the world with experience working wine grape harvests in the U.S., Italy, Australia, and New Zealand. Her education includes a B.S. in Biochemistry from Virginia Tech and a M.S. in Oenology from the University of Adelaide in South Australia.

Jocelyn has been serving as a consultant to winemakers and cidermakers across the country, as well as creating small batch wines and ciders for producers in Virginia since 2008. Jocelyn’s company Panacea Wine Consulting has helped producers build successful, thriving wine and cider companies; working with many different producers over the years has given her a high level of mastery and proficiency in the field.

Jocelyn also serves as the Cider Specialist for the Virginia Winemakers Research Exchange, a non-profit organization of Virginia producers pursuing quality improvement through practical experimentation in vineyards, orchards, wineries, and cideries. The organization supports wine and cider makers to refine ideas or questions through experimental design, protocol design, funding laboratory analysis, and finally conducting sensory and statistical evaluation. It is super science geeky and super fun!

In 2021, Jocelyn and longtime friend Megan Hereford started Daring Wine Company, a vision that grew from grapes without a home, a winery with space, and a lot of courage. Producing only small batch, high quality wines and ciders from southwestern and central Virginia and honoring the brave and bold people that have inspired us along the way. Saluté!